No Sacrifice
by LuckyDuck29
Summary: I wrote this last week based on spoilers and the promo. After Spinelli is released from prison, he and Jason have a heart to heart. Also posted on soap fan fiction. Please see my profile for the link to the ld29info forum for the author’s notes.


Spinelli sat tensely in the passenger's seat and stared out the window of the car as Jason drove him home. He'd just been released from prison, but at what cost to Jason? Sonny had snarled at him that Jason had sacrificed him for Spinelli. For what seemed like the hundredth time in the few minutes since they'd left the police station, Mr. Corinthos, Sir's parting words screamed in Spinelli's head.

"He betrayed me for you. I hope you're happy because one day he's gonna come to resent you for what you made him do to me."

He was happier than he could express about being out of prison, being free again, but what if Mr. Sir was right? What if the cost to his mentor had been too high? His freedom would not be worth Stone Cold's resentment, or his guilt over betraying one friend for another, or Spinelli's guilt over putting Jason in that position.

"You OK?" Jason asked with concern when they got back to the Penthouse. "You've been pretty quiet since we left the station."

"Is Mr. Sir correct? Did Stone Cold sacrifice his friendship for that of The Jackal?"

Jason sighed. He'd been afraid Sonny's remarks would eat at Spinelli.

"Remember the day Rayner came to see me after Jake's kidnapping?"

Spinelli nodded.

"He offered me a deal then, blanket immunity for information on Sonny and everybody else; all the families. I turned him down. Your arrest was not so much to get at you and put you away, but to get at me, to make me cooperate and do what they wanted."

"Then you played directly into the hands of the enemy!"

Spinelli was horrified. Jason had sacrificed his own interests, not just Mr. Sir.

He was standing by the refrigerator, holding an unopened orange soda. He put it on the counter, knowing that if he began to talk with his hands, as he did when he was passionate about something, the soda would explode when he opened it.

"I solved two problems; I got you outa jail and I stopped a potential mob war between me and Sonny."

"But what if he was right? He was your friend long before I was. You could come to resent me for your sacrifice, and resentment, if unchecked, can turn to hate."

His voice lowered in volume and he trailed off sadly.

Jason was sitting on the couch. He motioned for Spinelli to sit next to him. He picked up his soda, put it on the coffee table and sat.

Jason studied Spinelli for a moment, choosing his words.

"You and Sonny are very different."

Spinelli rolled his eyes at the comparison.

"I went to Sonny. I asked him to help me help you and he refused. I told him in no uncertain terms that if he didn't help me, I was gonna have to go to the FBI and give them what they wanted. I wasn't gonna let you go to jail for me. That's not worth blanket immunity, not to me. I wasn't gonna sell you out. In Sonny's mind just the thought of turning him in to save you is a betrayal. He was willing to help Luke save Johnny, but he wasn't even gonna think about helping me save you. I don't know what he's got against you and at this point it doesn't even matter."

Jason stopped briefly, realizing that he was babbling. He suppressed a smile, thinking to himself that he'd been living with Spinelli for too long. But there was a point to it. There was a point when Spinelli babbled, too, Jason knew; it was just harder for Jason to understand him because of his educated vocabulary.

"It hit me when I was talking to him. If your positions were reversed, if I asked you to help Sonny you would, even if I didn't threaten to take Rayner's deal. Sonny would have sold you down the river for blanket immunity if he was in my place. I'm not even sure anymore that he wouldn't do the same thing to me if he could stay out of prison and keep his power. If I went to jail, he could take the business back; I wouldn't be able to stop him. I wouldn't have to threaten you to get you to help Sonny; all I'd have to do is ask and you'd help him, despite how mean he's been to you. I mean, you never did a thing to him and he treats you like dirt. It's partly my fault; I gave him a free pass because of what happened to Michael. That made him think he could do whatever he wanted to you and I would never do anything about it. I should have put a stop to it the day he threw you out of the office and called you Freaky Boy."

"He was angry with me for accidentally walking in on-"

"It doesn't matter. He completely trashed you just because you made an honest mistake. He threatened you and he humiliated you. He had no right to do that. But you're illustrating my point right now. He does whatever he feels like doing to you and you're still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's never done that for you, not even once, not even before Michael was shot."

"The Jackal fails to understand how Mr. Sir's treatment of him warrants him being arrested by the FBI."

"That alone doesn't; it was all the other crap he's been pulling on top of that."

"With the shipments?"

Jason nodded.

"The shipments, his giving Karpov away into my territory, his killing Karpov and then leaving me to clean up the mess and deal with the mob war. My son was kidnapped because Sonny had to play the victim, and if that wasn't bad enough, he challenged me on Michael's birthday. Did I tell you that?"

Spinelli shook his head sympathetically. He'd been at Robin and Patrick's wedding on Michael's birthday. He felt a pang of guilt; he should have been there for his friend. Instead he'd been celebrating at the reception and fantasizing about dancing with Maximista while Stone Cold had been forced to deal with more ill treatment from the man who had once been like a father to him.

"I let it go that once in Michael's memory, but that wasn't good enough for Sonny. He kept pushing me. I knew what I had to do when you were arrested and Sonny refused to help."

"So turning in Mr. Corinthos, Sir, was an act of desperation?"

"Yeah, I couldn't let you go to jail and I couldn't let Sonny pull me into another mob war. It was either you or him, and if he'd helped me I could have saved both of you, but he had to be difficult, so I did what was necessary."

"But he was your father figure, your source of love and guidance, after your accident. The Jackal is merely-"

"The Jackal has been a better friend to me in the last two years than Sonny. I kept making excuses for his behavior; it was the bipolar disorder, or stress, or Michael's shooting, but the more I thought about it after our last talk when I tried to get him to help me, the more I realized he's never been a good friend to me. Sonny was always about what I could do for him. He's like that with everyone. The minute somebody does something he doesn't like, he screams betrayal. It was worse with you because you never betrayed him; you barely interacted with him, but he still treated you like you were the enemy just for being in the same room as him."

Spinelli couldn't argue with that. He had no idea what' he'd done to incur Mr. Sir's wrath, but whatever it was, it must have been most grievous. But not even Stone Cold knew what it was.

"As mean as Sonny's been to you, if you had the chance to get him out of there you would if I asked you, or even if he asked you, and he wouldn't have to intimidate you into it either. The problem is he would intimidate you just because he wants you to feel less important than him."

"He does crave power," Spinelli agreed.

"Yeah, and he likes to make targets out of good guys like you who wouldn't hurt anyone just for the sake of hurting them. Sonny's a coward and I can't believe it's taken me so long to see that."

"Am I to understand, then, that you turned him in out of anger?"

If that was the case, Sonny's prediction about Jason coming to resent Spinelli could very well come true. His anger toward Sonny could fade, and then he might become angry with Spinelli instead.

"No, I turned him in to prevent more violence, and to save you. The FBI was using you as a bargaining chip. Sonny had the chance to get out of it; he could have helped me save you when I asked. Instead he turned me away. He threatened me with another mob war if I didn't give him back the organization. He said that was the only way he'd help me help you. But I couldn't do that because the men are too mad at him for shooting Karpov an bringing The Russians down on us. They wouldn't stay with him, and even if they did, he's lost their respect. They would only stay with him out of fear now and he could get them killed, or they could get him killed because of their feelings towards him."

"So you turned him in for the greater good."

"Yes."

"Saving his life in the process, possibly; if he's in prison, the men can't get to him and exact revenge for the mob war."

Jason nodded, then got up and went to the refrigerator for a drink of his own; he was very thirsty. He suddenly realized this was the most he'd talked at one time in a very long time. But Spinelli needed to know all this. Jason didn't want him to believe Sonny's prediction that someday Jason would hate Spinelli for the position Sonny had forced him to take.

"Sonny was wrong," he said when he sat next to Spinelli again. "I don't know if he knew that and was just trying to hurt you for what I did or if he really believes what he told you, but he's wrong. I don't resent you for what I did; I resent him for putting me in that position. I had to achieve peace, one way or the other. Sonny wouldn't help me; he chose to be part of the problem instead of the solution, so I took the only solution left to me that would save you and everyone else."

Spinelli relaxed and took a long sip of his orange soda.

"I didn't sacrifice my friendship with Sonny," Jason continued. "That's been over for months. Sonny permanently destroyed it when he refused to help me get you out of jail. I thought like he did when I first met you. I used you for your Cyber skills before we became friends; that means I'm the one who's responsible for your arrest in the first place."

"What?" Spinelli asked incredulously.

Spinelli had been the one hacking into police records, Interpol and everywhere else he needed to go to get the information he needed, or change information to suit the situation. The FBI had caught up with him by employing his Cyber equal, the Treacherous Winifred. How could Stone Cold possibly blame himself for any of that?

"I got you into this. I let you get into it. I should have kept you out of the business once we cleared Sam, but you were good with a computer an I let you stay on as tech support, and then we became friends and I didn't try hard enough to let you out because you're still good with a computer. I don't wanna do to you what Sonny did to me. I don't wanna use you and then throw you away one day when things get bad and I need to lash out at someone. I turned him in to keep the peace, keep you out of prison and start to make things right with you."

"You've offered me a way out several times, Stone Cold. I choose not to take it because of the value you place on both my Cyber skills and more importantly my friendship. I've seen you push friends away because they're not in the business and I don't want you to do that with me. I'm not gonna leave you alone to drown in your self-recriminations."

Jason blinked at the sudden fierceness in Spinelli's tone.

"This business could do more than get you a lifetime stay in prison, Spinelli; it could get you killed. I will be alone if you sacrifice the life you could have for me."

"What life is that? Going to an office every day where the boss only cares about what I can do for him or her and offers no advice or friendship? What would someone like Kate Howard have done for me the night I found Wise Georgie lying dead in the snow? Would she have listened to me? I seriously think not. If she'd left the office and I'd called her for help the day Lucky and Det. Harper came over with that folder containing Georgie's unsent emails, would she have come back to help? More than likely she would have allowed The Jackal to be dragged down to the police station and then fired him for bringing bad publicity to her magazine. You don't need to start to make things right with me; you've done nothing wrong. Others value me only for what I can do for them, much like you described Mr. Sir before. You value and accept me as a unique individual, not only a Cyber Savvy employee. Others take what they need; you always give back as good as you get, even when you don't see it."

"You don't think you're giving up anything either."

Spinelli shook his head. Jason smiled. It was very rare for him to do that, and Spinelli loved to see it. His surrogate brother was far too serious most of the time.

Jason's cell rang.

"Yeah."

He listened, then looked at Spinelli.

"It's Burney."

Spinelli nodded.

While Jason took Burney's call, Spinelli went up to his pink room to take stock of what had been happening on his laptop since he'd been gone. He'd reinforced his firewalls and was reasonably sure that he had not been hacked. But he'd learned that you could never be too careful. He needed to double check, reinforce his firewalls again if necessary, and see if any alerts had come up regarding searches for information Stone Cold might need.

He smiled as he checked his email. There was one from Samantha, one from Maxie and one from Lulu. They had not been able to get him on his cell; he still had not turned it on after it had been handed back to him before leaving the police station. He'd been too preoccupied, first with his thoughts about Mr. Sir's furious prediction, then with his conversation with Stone Cold. They all said they were worried about him; Maximista's email had become more frantic as she went on.

His firewalls were OK. The alerts for Stone Cold were minor; he needed to know what he'd found, but they would have to wait until he ended his phone call with The Beneficent one, anyway, so he could call his friends and let them know that all was well.

After his conversation with Stone Cold, his good cheer was infectious as he talked to the rest of his friends. He felt at peace knowing that his friend and mentor had used The Jackal's incarceration to facilitate peace and that his methods would not eventually cause him to resent the person he had fought so hard to save. Jason saw Sonny's arrest as a necessity, not a sacrifice. Their friendship had ended months ago, as Jason had said. Sonny considered Spinelli the reason for the end to their brotherhood; Jason considered him an instrument of peace. He was sorry that Mr. Sir had had to go to prison in order to bring about that peace, but he was relieved that he himself could continue to assist his mentor in maintaining the new order. For now, and he hoped for a long time to come, Port Charles was safe from mob wars and senseless violence.


End file.
